Tea with Milk and the Poetry of Ordinary Egyptian Life

Peace. It is the final word that Egyptian poet Salah Jahin uses in his poem, El Shay Bel Laban (Tea with Milk, 1955), which was published in his first poetry collection Kalimat Salam (A Word of Peace, 1955).  Sitting at the breakfast table in the gentle hours of the morning, the poem describes the scene of two lovers meditating on the slow ritual of drinking tea with milk together. They feel and drink the feeling of peace; the feeling of taking a deep exhale after sipping one’s favorite drink and finally feeling, if only for a brief, fleeting moment, that maybe this is peace. Maybe this is peace now, even if it will not remain so peaceful for long. Born in Shobra, Cairo, in 1930, and witnessing the political developments and upheavals that led to the 1952 Revolution and Egypt’s independence, Jahin’s lifetime was marked by turbulence, and peace was never a word that could simply be written onto a page with ease or carelessness. Writing the word ‘peace’ in a poem would have felt far too simple for a reality that was anything but. Yet for Jahin, thereContinue reading "Tea with Milk and the Poetry of Ordinary Egyptian Life"

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